Jdesq. Here is a picture of swarm cells on a frame from my Carniolan colony. They love to propagate..... As you can see the cells are clumped and on the bottom of the frame

A supercedure cell, one that they might build, then tear down, or raise a queen in. Bees build and tear down queen cups all the time, a common thing in the colony, they know how to practice, smiling. Usually when you see queen cups separately on the face of the comb it is queen cups, not related to swarm cells, slightly different ideas on the part of the bee. But that is not always 100% the case. Have a most wonderful and awesome life, day, health. Cindi

Three queen cups

Those queen cups (could be supercedure cells) from a different angle, smiling

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

cindi, do you ever pull those frames and start new hives, or do you just leave them and let nature take it's course? i know it's a waste of time to scrape them. was wondering if they continue to try to supersede or build swarm cells if you remove the entire frame. i have just left them to this point.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

>ok, so large cells in the middle of a frame is an indication that a hive is preparing to swarm?

-Lots of bees in a hive and no room for the queen to lay --- Congestion-Backfilling of the brood nest ---- filling the brood nest with nectar as the brood hatches. This indicates they have put the queen on a diet and preparing her for flight.

Cindi, Great photos again. I like the swarm cells. Ive never actually seen any yet in real life. Is it strange that they bunched them up like that? Maybe we should start a post in the "What it should look like" area for "Swarm cells" and "Supercedure" cells.

Kathy, when I see swarm cells as such, what I like to do is to take the queen from that colony, a good part of the brood and a good part of the honey and place in a new place in a new box. Those bees are already in the swarm mood, and nothing will change their mind. The queen in the new location, lots of brood gone (so the other original hive does not have to do too much work with brood rearing) and honey, the bees are under the belief that a swarm has occurred. The beekeeper has fooled the bees. They won't swarm as they think the colony has. Of course, swarm prevention should be in place, but sometimes we just get a little lazy, smiling.

The queen cups that you see in the middle of the frame. I would never cut them out or take them off the frame. I believe that the bees know what is up and I leave them alone. There is a good chance that even though they have built these (unless there are queen eggs/larvae within these cells), that they are going to be torn down. And if they have a queen within any of these cells, I think they are of the belief that they have a failing queen and need a new one. I know that I have not even tipped the edge of the iceberg with my learning, but I would like to think that I know a little bit, smiling.

I am still in such a massive learning curve in my beekeeping that I still just don't get stuff. But really, when I think logically about what the bees are doing, I really think that they know best. Oh yeah, have a wonderful and awesomely great day, life, health, we all be lovin' and livin' our great lives. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Ok,...lets go a little further along on this subject :)..So,....If you have the "peanut cell" on a frame.....and its sealed.....Is this also the point(or initiative) to where this can be where you pull the frame out with a mess of others and you have the necessary ingredients to start a new hive?your friend,john

If the cell is already capped and there are just one or two of them then no. I would leave them in the current hive to provide a queen for the hive as the old queen is prolly already gone. If you have multiple frames with multiple cells on each frame that are capped then I would say yes, but be sure to leave a couple of the cells in the existing hive. That is also saying the hive is strong enough to split also. :-P

On the picture on my web site, those are swarm cells on a foundationless frame. You'll notice they like to put the cells on the edge of the comb, not necessarily the bottom. In this case there is an edge where the two combs they started met in the middle.